Nice thread, I will have to do some reading later.

I dont know anything about steering boxes. What does that spanner nut cap the shaft goes through look like? Is there a bushing in it? If its tightened to spec and still sloppy, theres only so many things it can be... Worn bushing, worn shaft, or a bad bearing somewhere.

Next time no teflon tape. It should be used on plumbing only, and even that is kinda iffy IMO, we have better options now. On tractor hydraulic NPT ports I just use regular cheap *** non hardening pipe dope for like 2 bucks at the hardware store. Another option is some type of anaerobic sealer. Dissolved pipe dope is gonna cause way less problems in a system vs pieces of teflon.

 

Good for you for not trying to just fix that with your wallet. I probably would have just bought a new pre-tapped box from PSC haha.

 

yeah, you're probably right about the tape. The last time I put it back together, I was very cautious that the depth of the tape did not get near the fluid port. I did also use pipe dope on it as well. Belt and suspenders.

There's a roller bearing in the box that the shaft rides on. Just a little guy. The spanner nut cap is an adjustment which sets the preload on a thrust bearing. There is an adjustment procedure for the box, I just marked where the cap was and put it back to the same spot.

If there's anything I'm good at, its doing stuff myself so it takes longer, is more expensive, and comes out worse lol. The PSC drop-in replacement is like $1200. That hurts just a bit too much when there are other options.

 

So the power steering saga is still not going well




Blew the sector shaft seal out again. I'm obviously doing something wrong. I still was feeling like there was something weird with the way the steering felt while bleeding. Felt like it was building pressure in the system while turning. Like the return line was blocked or something.

After contemplating burning my garage down, I pulled everything back apart again. I blew air through everything on the return side including the hoses, filter, cooler, and pump reservoir to make sure there wasn't a blockage somewhere. I disassembled the box again to see if I could identify an issue, which I couldn't.

At this point, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm trying something else. I ordered a Durango box on eBay, along with a rebuild kit. I plan on tearing the Durango box down to tap for hydro assist and rebuilding, like I did on the XJ box. Just hopefully this time it works.

While going through the system, I pulled the pump bypass apart again. I could hear the pump bypassing while bleeding when I turned full lock, but wanted to do it for good measure. When apart, I laid the XJ and WJ parts next to each other to closely evaluate any differences.





The notable piece here is the spring inside the bypass valve. The rate of this spring sets the pressure at which fluid will flow through the bypass rather than through the steering box. Stiffer spring means higher pressure in the system.

The springs are pretty close, but the WJ spring is beefier. Both springs have the same wire thickness and outer diameter, but the WJ spring is about 0.055" longer and has 0.5 less coils. I've read numbers stating the WJ spring is good for about 1400 psi whereas the XJ spring is more like 1100 psi. More pressure equals more turning power, but also puts more demand on the seals.

During all of this, I was able to finish a smaller project that I'm pretty happy about: I moved my windshield washer fluid reservoir to under the hood. I used a reservoir from a ZJ (Mopar PN 55155360). It fit pretty good and did not take a ton of effort to get it installed.

First step was to undress the hoses and wires out of the harness. This was the most tedious part of the whole ordeal.





I mounted the tank utilizing 2 existing holes on the side of the fender, and drilled a 3rd. It almost fits perfect, but the rearward hole did need a small mounting tab to gain another inch. I had to play with this mount a bit because the tank is very close to the hood. First time around the hood touched it, so I had to rework the position a bit to gain another 1/2".















I drilled a hole into the reservoir to reuse my low washer fluid sensor







Plenty of room for activities now! Pretty happy with how this came out.

 

That's a really good idea on moving the windshield washer reservoir to inside the engine bay. I've smacked my reservoir a few times and had to plastic glue/weld it a few times.

Edit:
for the wiring, did you have to rewire/switch wires or did you just need to pull the necessary wires from the loom to redirect them?

 

I just pulled the wires from the loom and redirected them. The ZJ tank uses the same pumps, so the connectors worked. I didn't even shorten the wires, just tied the slack back.

 

oh that's awesome! My next mod! haha

 

So, I will say that I have had some ideas brewing for air intake setups and I'm now looking at this washer reservoir thinking I could've done better. The issue I am seeing is the reservoir sits in front of the brake master cylinder by about 4 inches. There is room to move the reservoir back about 4 inches, but its too wide to sit next to the brake booster. It has to be in front of it. If it was about 2 inches narrower, I could move the reservoir back closer to the firewall, leaving much more room for an airbox.

I literally just finished this mod and haven't even put fluid in the tank yet, but I'm already eyeballing it for rework. I'm looking at some more universal tanks that are smaller but will package better. Honestly, the same reservoir I use for my coolant overflow could be a great candidate.

I currently cannot fit the OEM airbox because of where my coolant overflow tank sits. Last year, I moved the tank to where the washer reservoir currently sits so I could use the OEM airbox. I just zip tied the coolant reservoir in place. It was a very crude setup to get me through the year. While I do really like how the coolant reservoir packages in its current location next to the radiator, I need an airbox solution. Yes, I could just use a simple elbow tube and cone filter, and I might for the short term, but I would very much like a more proper airbox. While the OEM piece is fine, I would like to move the intake higher. Plus, I eventually see myself going to high clearance inner fenders and possibly raising the shock mounts up into the engine bay. I have been looking at filter housings from Donaldson. They have some great options that have pre-cleaners that eject particles from the airbox before they reach the filter integrated in, which would be great. Similar setup to the UMP filters that a lot of the desert guys run. I've been taking some measurements and looking at CFM/restriction numbers. The filter housings are large and expensive, so we'll see if anything happens with that.

So, long story longer, I might redo the washer reservoir setup to prioritize room for an airbox.

 

haha, thanks for the incite! I did come across some other posts and on naxja one person mentioned using an s10 reservoir. They didn't say which year, or anything else about it.